It may come down to you

A Chief Executive Officer of a large company stated that he did not need to know anything about personal security because he has the best body guards, drivers, and security that money can buy. We have also heard similar statements from journalists, NGO workers, and others. I would like to offer a differing view and flat out tell you that money and personal security is not the silver bullet that you believe it is. In fact, you may be your own worst enemy, and the factor that renders your own security establishment ineffective. Ignorance and arrogance are the biggest enemy to your security detail, and friend to anyone targeting you.

I hate to break the news to you but there is not a security system available on the market that cannot be defeated, and if basic security practices aren’t followed, make you vulnerable. In many cases, simple things like failing to vary routes, times, and signatures make it easy for kidnappers, traffickers, or anyone targeting you to carry out their plans. The bad guys will watch a target for months to understand you or your family’s pattern of life. The bad guys will follow you around the city, watch your house, interview your security guards, and determine when and where you are the most vulnerable.

What happens when your body guard, driver, and security systems are taken out of the equation? I have been an executive protector for the past two decades. I have traveled all over the world, keeping individuals, couples, families, and teams safe. If your security is in me and in my presence, and I am taken out of the fight, what happens to you? Every alarm system, security guard, executive protection detail, monitor, camera, lock, and piece of armor can be defeated. Those things are important and function as barriers to entry, but they are systems that can be defeated. What happens when the intelligence on your security apparatus is so good that every element gets disabled? Ultimately, it comes down to you, your knowledge base, your skill set, and your willingness to act on your own behalf.

If you have insisted on taking the same routes, at the same times, with the same signature everyday, your entire security apparatus can be eliminated in seconds. You can be beaten senseless before being stuffed into a trunk and taken to the bad guy’s world to be sold back to your family. Perhaps at that moment, this article may have some meaning while your sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive. Have you considered how you might react when your fight, flight, or freeze response kicks in? How will it effect you in an emergency? What about the long term effects of captivity?

It comes down to a simple thought; at the end of the day you either have knowledge that enhances your personal security, or you are a danger to yourself and others. You simply enhance your survivability and your security detail’s ability to protect you when you have basic personal security knowledge. Your ability to survive captivity grows even more when you know the psychology surrounding it. Your security detail will be able to protect you even more when you understand the impact of your own actions. It comes down to you at the end of the day. What are you going to do about it?